Reply #25: I went to Estonia a few years ago [View All]

[LiberalEsto]

to visit relatives. Estonia is still very much Estonian -- people maintained their culture secretly during the soviet regime.

My 2 cousins and their spouses are very much do-it-yourselfers. They built their own homes, except for the foundations. They did the framing, roofing, wiring, plumbing, heating systems, etc. They both have nice, comfortable homes.

My country cousin grows fruit and vegetables and, with my aunt's help, makes a lot of wonderful food from scratch. Her husband commutes to the city with their 3 kids, who go to school in Tallinn.

My city cousin and his wife both work full time, and the wife's mother lives with them and helps with their 6-year-old.

They don't like to talk about the soviet years much, although they say schoolchildren were able to master mathematics better when classes were taught in Russian, because there is something about the Russian language that is conducive to explaining mathematics. They say education in general was better under the soviets.

My cousins respect Russians who work hard. But like many Estonians they have no use for some Russians in Estonia whom they regard as lazy. There's a certain element in the Russian populace in Estonia that drinks too much, refuses to learn Estonian, and generally wants something for nothing. Russian women are easy to spot because they wear tons of makeup and dress cheap and flashy. The younger generation of Estonians and Russians mingle socially and there appears to be less animosity.